Advanced Monitoring Systems, On Site Control And Non Destructive Evaluation Of Masonry Structures And Materials

Continuous assessment of “structural safety related” aspects of masonry materials and structures is becoming a key issue in modern conservation strategies of existing buildings and civil structures and infrastructures. Cultural, social and economical reasons require that those who are responsible for the conservation should have the capability to predict possible “unfavorable events” in order to minimize their impact on the value (cultural and/or economical) of a given construction and the costs of intervention required to prevent and/or mitigate their effects. Several solutions are being adopted to this scope, from the simplest observational procedures to the more sophisticated automatic, long distance operated monitoring systems. All them are to be considered in this moment welcome: “continuous assessment” is a real progress in the conservation strategies only if it represents and attitude of the responsible bodies, no matter the technology they are using. However, technological progress unavoidably pushes “everything” towards sophistication and complexity, and generally offers real possibilities to get better opportunities, whatever the field of application can be. The paper proposes a remote monitoring system for civil engineering structures based upon WWW technology, that was recently applied on the roof of the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua.